Arcane Ranger

[Malaprop]

Here's a curiosity which arose whilst playing Neverwinter...er...pc, not campaign setting, sadly. ANYHOW -

Do Rangers seem a bit underpowered to anyone else? Or, at the least, not in any way oriented towards archery, which I always kinda thought went with the RANGEr concept. I had a thought for house-ruling the class, granting a few ranged feats (Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Far Shot...Immolation Arrow? Oh wait...) at alternate levels and changing their spell-type to arcane. This would make for either a versatile ranged/melee character, or a formidable arcane archer (conceptually, that is, regardless of whether you take the prc). I had considered that it was a munchkiny idea, but a glance at the monk's progression cured me of that. Or the rogue...hell, anyone. What does a Ranger get but dual-wielding and favored enemies? And a slightly higher hit die.

Thoughts?

[Laugh]

Do Rangers seem a bit underpowered to anyone else? Or, at the least, not in any way oriented towards archery, which I always kinda thought went with the RANGEr concept.
Thoughts?

I think the term Ranger is more like real world rangers that look after wildlife in a range (mountain range etc...) but I'm not terribly sure on that so don't quote me on it

2nd level Rangers (3.5E rules) do get a choice between archery and two weapon fighting, taking archery means that the Ranger is treated as having Rapid Shot so I guess they do have some orientation to archery.

I had a thought for house-ruling the class, granting a few ranged feats

A player in a campaign of mine plays a Ranger and he doesn't seem to need any house rules to help his class out. The ranger on the whole seems to be quite powerful when using the two weapon fighting feats (Ambidexterity and another) and some decent armour. He's actually one of the biggest damage dealers in the whole party, he seems to do better in combat than the Dwarven fighter at times!

What does a Ranger get but dual-wielding and favored enemies? And a slightly higher hit die.

If I remember correctly the Ranger in 3E gets a D10 hit die so they've actually dropped the Ranger down in 3.5E (D8 HD)

I now realise that you're on about the ranger in the PC game and not in the pen & paper game so....uhh what I just said is probably irrelevant but I just can't bear to erase it all now. I'll play Neverwinter and get back to you.